Diapers

Dear Pampers:

While I admit that the convenience of buying a large amount of your Easy-Up Pants in a big box with handles is nice - your claim on the box to have an "Extra Dry Layer" is utterly false.
My son is well within your size 5 Junior weight measurements (12-18 kg, 26-40 lbs) yet more than once - he has overflowed his diaper overnight.  And he DOES pee before going to bed in the bathroom....he doesn't get a drink in the middle of the night...and I am baffled as to how he can leak out of the back of the diaper!  The back of his pajama bottoms and shirt were soaked.

In example, last night, I woke up thinking I drooled all over the bed.  Oh no - it was my son's pee all over the blanket and in my face.  Great.

A diaper is a diaper and I don't think I should "have to" purchase diapers that are specifically made for longer hours in the night time - seeing as he sleeps about 10 hours per night.
Nor would we want to wake him up to change his diaper...

Even in a 2-3-hour time span in the afternoon - he can easily overflow a diaper... we ensure that he is "pointing south" and the leg cuffs are pulled out enough that the leakage should not happen.

We will no longer be buying your crummy diapers - and will go back to Libero brand - which has a smaller amount in their packaging usually - but who have yet to leak on us.

Sincerely,
Pissy Parents (pun intended)

It's been a week already...! (Among other things)

Holy cow! So it's been a week since living in Finland and I cannot get over how quickly time flies.
I decided to read on the Finland Forum about cloth diapers and used items for sale and it's quite impressive what people have experienced.
There's such things for sale from "Snoop tickets (snoop dog? not sure)" to "Madonna tickets" to an "Emma baby sitter". I feel really silly for mentioning this - but I posted a reply asking what a baby-sitter was because it was originally purchased for 35 Euros and was being sold for 20. The original receipt is still handy and it's "brown in color." I really did think it was a person named Emma being sold as a baby-sitter. After a quick search on Google - turns out it's a baby-seat.
Oh the terminology.

Now cloth diapers - whoa. There's actually people addicted to finding the perfect cloth diapers for the wee one. I can understand wanting to buy a good one so there's no leakage when visiting your family for tea and whatnot - but there are people that actually confessed on the forum to being addicted to cloth diapers.

My opinion on cloth versus disposable - should one be interested as I do not have children presently - not until November anyways....
I'm going to go with the cloth diapers and the plastic outer pants/diaper covers (or whatever they're called here) or the leak proof cloth diapers - (depending on cost between getting separate leak protection or all in one) for day time and for home.
In terms of sleeping at night and for travelling - I'm going to use disposables for the sake of convenience. For example - a ferry to Germany from Helsinki can range from 24-36 hours... not exactly the place where I'd find a washing machine and a clothing line to hang the diapers to dry.

I was reading on this Forum that people were worried about getting their washing machine dirty and full of bacteria... yes a genuine concern -I agree. Luckily I have a book I got in Canada by Reader's Digest - full of handy household tips. The biggest tip of all was the various uses of vinegar and lemons (among other things).
Vinegar is very cheap in Canada (and I can only assume in Finland as well - haven't looked yet) and they say to pour 1 cup of vinegar into your final rinse cycle to disinfect the washing machine and diapers and to help brighten the colors. Also it's very mild and safe to use compared to bleach for example.
To empty the diaper prior to washing (some people thought you tossed the whole soiled diaper in the washing machine immediately) - just shake the stools out into the toilet, squeeze out the wetness if it is excessive and then put in the washer.
I fully plan on having a pair of rubber gloves handy just in case it gets nasty. I figure if I have 2 medium-large dogs (Husky/lab mix and Lab/border collie) and am able to pick up after them with a thin plastic bag - then a diaper shouldn't be an issue with plastic gloves. Besides a child is bound to barf, spit up, pee or poo on you at some point. Once you've hit this point - then it's smooth sailing from there (so they say).

And isn't that what anti-bacterial soap is for anyways?